ADOPTED
Please read our dog bios carefully to be sure that the dog you are applying for suits your family and lifestyle. At Pound Dog Rescue, we believe in the benefits of post-adoption training for our dogs and their families. This allows for continued socialization, and learning and helps to create a well-mannered and balanced dog. Post-adoption training is a requirement in our adoption process.
Enter the dragon: it’s Sisu! Sisu is a female spayed German Shepherd who is about 1 year old and about 50 lbs. She takes her name from Sisudatu, a dragon in Raya and the Last Dragon, who believes in forgiveness and goodness at the heart of every being. This is a dragon of luck, healing, and new beginnings. What an apt notion to start Sisu’s journey to a forever home!
Sisu entered the care of Pound Dog Rescue as an unclaimed stray from a dog pound in southern Ontario that was reaching capacity, as she had been overlooked for at least two months. With the limited resources, staff and funds at the animal shelter, she was not being regularly walked and was kenneled indoors side-by-side with many other stressed, unwanted dogs. Meeting her at the shelter, she was so happy and exuberant to have the opportunity to come out of her kennel for even a brief moment to meet us and you could see that her spirit was still burning strong. Pound Dog Rescue recognized this spark and brought her into rescue to kindle that flame.
Given that her life has been so inconsistent until now, she lacks confidence at times and in new situations Sisu does take some time to acclimatize. Although she absolutely loves people generally, in new surroundings she may take a moment and some treats to show her true happy, wiggly personality. She gets nervous when uncertain or overstimulated: a strange shadow at night, seeing some dogs, a strange sound, etc. With time, repeated positive interactions and reassurance from her handler, Sisu’s confidence will grow and she will become surer of herself in new situations. What she needs is consistency and time, and we have seen such growth in her in her foster journey already. She needs the opportunity to practice neutrality in the face of new stimuli. She is a sensitive dog who thrives on routine and structure, and requires a gentle, confident handler. She will not be a good fit for first-time dog owners.
As one can imagine, due to the constant exposure to stressed dogs with few to no outlets for her energy for a prolonged period of time, Sisu was very overwhelmed coming from the shelter into a foster home. Knowing she needed peace, we adjusted our home to allow her to have her kennel in a separate quiet space, set up a classical music machine and some Adaptil, and began the process of helping her to decompress and learn how to relax in a home setting. Sisu is kennel-trained and absolutely thrives with a kennel space open to her. She is fed her meals in her kennel, sleeps soundlessly through the night, and relaxes peacefully for work-days (8hrs) when we are away, and happily occupies herself with a Benebone or Kong or passes the time resting. She is not generally vocal in our home at this time but will protest if our dogs are playing while she is in her crate, but self-soothes quite well. She has never used the bathroom in her crate, and only had 1-2 pee accidents in the home after gorging some water (which she drinks very messily!). Sisu does not protest crating, and runs into the kennel on cue but often chooses to rest there when it is open to her. She cannot have blankets in her crate at this time as she tends to remove small edges from them like the crusts off bread. Sisu will benefit from a dedicated space where she can have her kennel apart from other animals and foot traffic, as she knows it to be a peaceful and happy space to rest.
In the home, Sisu is learning how to rest and settle. She is most comfortable in the room with her crate, but her sphere of comfort is expanding the longer she is in foster care. Sisu can be a bit immature at times and may test various objects for chewability, but will stop as soon as you tell her “ah-ah” or “uh-oh.” Once she knows a certain object is inappropriate for chewing she has not repeated the behaviour. She does tend to be a bit destructive with soft toys and will consume fluff if she can, so any toys need to be sturdy and monitored for holes. We have not witnessed her counter-surfing or trying to take food, but this would not be outside of a possibility for her if she was left alone and not given guidance. She is generally very respectful of not investigating counter edges and raised surfaces. She does like to jump onto the couch with you if you are sitting down, and we have been working on an “off” cue with positive reinforcement should her forever family not want to use Sisu as a snuggle-pillow on the couch. Sisu does appreciate a nice dog bed as well, and after some walking around will settle on her bed.
Sisu requires proper introductions to dogs, but after proper introductions she has done well with known dogs of various sizes. She is
certainly interested in befriending dogs and playing with them, and quickly takes to going on walks with a buddy or three (she was walked with our small Chihuahua/Jack Russell terrier foster and our medium-sized resident dogs) but isn’t completely sure what to do with them indoors right away. She also lacks some confidence in terms of her interactions with new dogs. We introduced her slowly to our two calm resident dogs over a few weeks through walks together outside, separate alone time inside, and interactions with limited access to resources like toys and treats to inter feelings of calmness, confidence and relaxation while around our dogs. Now that Sisu is feeling much less stressed and generally more decompressed, she greets our dogs with a full wiggling body, tries to play with them, and easily relaxes nearby on a bed if they don’t want to play with her. She doesn’t try to control our dogs in a shared space and hasn’t guarded beds or toys now that she is comfortable in our home with our dogs. Sisu still gets a little overstimulated playing outside with our dogs as she is still a very young dog, so we supervise to help settle her if needed, although she is learning gentleness with time. She seems to enjoy a run-and-chase type playstyle.
On walks, Sisu has become accustomed to seeing strange dogs also enjoying their walks and we have been rewarding Sisu’s choice to visually acknowledge a dog and look back to us for a reward to build a positive relationship with seeing other dogs outside and automatically checking-in. Overall, she has not been very dog reactive on walks in her time with us, and this foundation of checking-in with her handler can be built upon in training in her forever home. We never allow our fosters to meet strange dogs on walks, and advise against on-leash greetings with unknown dogs for Sisu. Sisu has been doing so well with this check-in behaviour that instead of reacting to dogs barking or charging fences she turns to check-in with us automatically instead! She is becoming quite neutral about dogs walking around the neighbourhood. Sisu is generally very sensitive to the emotions of other dogs, so any canine companions in her forever home must be male, calm, confident and neutral. She will not do well with a hyperactive or anxious housemate as she feeds off the energy of dogs around her. Sisu would likely be too much for a dog that isn’t interested in sharing their space, as she does like to rummage in their ears and poke them with her nose in attempts to play and isn’t always aware of the space that she occupies. Sisu would also do well as the only dog in the home and getting all of the attention.
Sisu also lives with two cats in her foster home, and we consider her to be cat-friendly with dog-savvy cats. Cats who are frightened and run may be interesting to Sisu, as she did like to sniff at our cats when she first arrived. Sisu has not displayed any stress signals with the presence of cats and quickly accepted them. After sniffing them and seeing what cats were about, she mostly ignores them, only checking on them briefly when they are around. Any cats in her forever home should be comfortable and confident in the presence of a larger dog that might show them some gentle interest.
For a dog with limited leash exposure, Sisu walks very well. She is currently walked on a martingale collar to prevent her slipping free of her collar. Sisu may flinch slightly when there are unexpected noises (usually while she’s focused on sniffing at night), but she generally does not bolt forward if she is frightened, and these moments are not frequent. She is walked in a semi-urban neighbourhood and has had exposure to higher traffic roads as well and handles people, dogs and other neighbourhood staples like passing bicycles, skateboards, buses, garbage trucks and the like quite well. Sisu usually walks right beside you on a loose leash, but may stop or veer away to sniff something interesting. Sisu appreciates a mix between focused walking and time for sniffing. We have been working on a release cue to indicate she is free to sniff as well as building some structure into her walks. She may pull when she is excited, but we stop moving forward, and she has learned that this tension on the leash means to stop and check in with her handler prior to continuing, and she corrects herself quite well in this way. Excessive leash tension causes Sisu to become stressed and crouch down on the ground. We are starting to condition her to a gentle leader in case she will benefit from its use in the future, but we’ve been having success with a martingale alone so we have not implemented it for daily use at this time. She is still a little uncomfortable with the gentle leader loop on her nose. Sisu is interested in wildlife on walks, but has learned to check-in through timed positive reinforcement and is easily redirected from stopping and staring at squirrels. We have not had an opportunity to take her on a trail yet but expect she would enjoy a long sniff-walk in the woods greatly.
Sisu is medium energy, and walks about 45 mins to 1 hour daily at a moderate pace, and she is an all-weather type of dog. We generally break the walk into two parts simply due to our work schedules, but she can handle one larger walk just fine. She is not hyperactive, but would also appreciate access to a dog-friendly green space where she can run around as she does get very silly and zooms, and usually has a long-line in our fenced-in yard while we work on her recall. A busy dog park is too unpredictable and would not be appropriate for Sisu. She loves to run and play with people and likes to be chatty with you while she tries to get you to play with her. Sisu can live in a smaller home or even an apartment as long as she has her dedicated outdoor time.
While she does walk a fair bit, Sisu also requires mental stimulation. Sometimes we build this directly into her walks, working on heeling-type behaviours and asking her to jump up on large rocks as something easy she can be successful at to build confidence. Other times we will spend a small session in the backyard or new environments working on skills she has practiced in a familiar environment first. Sisu really enjoys training, and her forever home should have an interest in dog training beyond basic training as Sisu takes quickly to positive reinforcement and enjoys it so much. She learns very quickly and will be a great companion to someone invested in her training. We have started some trick training and she is very eager to start offering behaviours now that she knows they are fun and rewarding! She is very food motivated and knows what the training treat pouch means, and her excitement is palpable.
Sisu definitely believes in the goodness of people. She absolutely loves her family and does well with new people after some time to become comfortable in her surroundings. Even when she is unsure of her surroundings she is still curious to see new people, although not with her usual exuberance and enthusiasm. Sisu is a smiler with the cutest crinkled nose and will complete the display with a little air dragon dance for you when she greets you after a long day or even just after waking up. She tries so hard not to jump on you and pulls in her front limbs while trying to wiggle towards your face through the air like a worm. She’s so incredibly happy to have a family and we see this in her daily. If you bend down she will try to smother your face with kisses. She loves to lean into your legs for deep shoulder rubs, and often attaching her leash happens while her head is upside down happily looking into your eyes with the goofiest expression. She has the most expressive ears! Sisu absolutely loves physical affection and will come right up to you for some pats as close as she physically can. She also loves to be talked to. While she absolutely adores pets, she will also recognize when you need a break from her devoted affection and lie down nearby until you show the slightest sign of needing her again. We do think Sisu may have been struck in her past life as she flinches, closes her eyes, shrinks and braces for impact at times when you lift your legs (or example, to step over a leash or long-line) or hands (especially males) and we have been working on her confidence in seeing these motions by giving her a treat with each movement to work on changing her emotional response. Her love of physical affection does outweigh any reticence she has, and her confidence has already come such a long way. As Sisu can be a bit touch sensitive (slight flinch) if she doesn’t know you are going to touch her and can startle at sudden sounds (noise sensitive), we recommend a home with family members who are older teens and up.
Sisu has a gorgeous, immensely soft sable double-coat that will require appropriate maintenance and bathing. Double-coated breeds often “blow coat” twice a year, and Sisu will benefit from a deshedding-type shampoo that helps to loosen the dead undercoat to keep her light and fresh. Some gentle brushing will help as well, but is not a frequent need for her. Sisu tolerates bathing fairly well, but needs some repeated exposure to the shower spray as she became frightened once in the bath when the tap made an unexpected noise, but settled again with encouragement. Sisu likely never had a nail trim prior to rescue either, and we have been practicing handling her feet with positive reinforcement. At first she would cry out when her feet were inadvertently handled, but now we can trim her nails and wipe her feet after walks without issue. Consistent positive interactions without pushing Sisu to discomfort are important for building trust and her continued success. She really wants to please, and working with her at her pace has been so beneficial for her confidence.
Car travel can be a bit stressful for Sisu, which may be due to lack of exposure. On her first few rides she tried to climb into the front seat while driving if she was not secured, but would not tolerate the restraint of a car harness as the restraint caused her to panic and shut down. In general, she needs some encouragement to enter the car, and we will usually crawl into the back seat or open both back doors and she will jump in to join us. We have experimented with tethering her loosely to the top of the headrest with a leash with a window very slightly cracked open with some success. Now, she does not try to crawl into the front seat but usually pants and drools a bit, and on longer driving sessions (2hrs or so round trip) she has vomited from motion sickness towards the end of the driving. Sisu would likely benefit from a car kennel in her forever home for safety, and we believe she will be happiest in a crate since likes a kennel space in general. With continued exposure she will likely come to enjoy car rides in time. Ideally, her forever home should be prepared to invest in a car crate for Sisu, and ideally budget for a crash-tested model long-term.
Do you see the goodness at the heart of Sisu? This dog is full of spirit and is ready to find her new beginning. You can find Sisu’s foster journey on Instagram @twiceluckyfosters. Thank you for reading her bio and considering a rescue dog.